Assign a task

Tasks help track things you need to do. You can assign tasks to other people as well.

On the Navigation Bar, click Tasks, and then click New Task, or open an existing task.

Keyboard shortcut To create a task, press Ctrl+Shift+K.

Click Assign Task.

Click To or in the To box, enter a name or an email address.

In the Subject box, type a name for the task.

Enter the Start date and Due date.

In the Priority list, you can change Normal to High or Low if you want.

Check or uncheck the Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list and Send me a status report when this task is complete boxes.

If you want the task to repeat, click Recurrence, select the options you want, and then click OK.

In the body, include information about the task.

Click Send.

Note If you assign a recurring task, a copy of the task remains in your task list, but it never updates. If you check the Send me a status report when this task is complete box, you receive status reports for each completed occurrence of the task.

When you open a task you assigned, you can review the progress of assigned tasks with the % Complete box which either you or the recipient can update when they send you an assigned task status report.

Assigning tasks to multiple people

Outlook can track the progress of a task assigned to one person. If you want to multiple people to work on a task, it’s a good idea to divide the task into smaller pieces or assign each task individually. For example, to track a report to be written by three writers, create three separate tasks named Write Report: Anne, Write Report: Carlos, and Write Report: Michiyo, and assign each individual task to the appropriate writer.